1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a call recovery system for an attendant telephone set, and a method of using the same. In particular, the invention is directed to an attendant telephone set with multiple call appearance buttons. When one of the call appearance buttons on the set is selected the associated telephone number of the calling party of the incoming call is automatically redialed.
2. Background of the Invention
All too often while an operator is answering telephone calls at an attendant telephone set capable of receiving multiple incoming calls one of the incoming calls will inadvertently be disconnected during transfer to a called party or otherwise. In this and other situations, the called party is unable to recover the lost call.
Call recovery features have been developed to reinstate an incoming call. One such technique is referred to as xe2x80x9c*69xe2x80x9d. The telephone number of the last incoming call to a called party location may be automatically redialed by pressing the buttons xe2x80x9c*xe2x80x9d, followed by the number xe2x80x9c6xe2x80x9d and then the number xe2x80x9c9xe2x80x9d. By pressing this sequence of buttons the telephone number of the calling party is automatically dialed and displayed on the LED, if available. This feature, however, is limited in that only the last call that has been dialed to a called party location may be retrieved. In addition, the xe2x80x9c*69xe2x80x9d feature is inefficient in that it requires the user to press three buttons.
The problem associated with the xe2x80x9c*69xe2x80x9d feature may be overcome by using a call logging feature, wherein a caller identification list is provided on a display. The identification, e.g. telephone number, of a predetermined number of calls dialed into a called party location are stored in a memory device. A user at the called party location can scroll down the caller identification list and select a particular telephone number. Once selected the telephone number of the calling party is automatically dialed. Accordingly, a user can select the caller identification of a predetermined number of previous callers, for example, the last caller, the second to the last caller, or the last caller identified in the list. This technique is disadvantageous in that it requires that the telephone set include a display on which the caller identification list may be viewed, and by way of which one of the telephone numbers in the list is selected.
It is therefore desirable to develop a call recovery system that overcomes the disadvantages associated with conventional call recovery methods, and in particular, a call recovery system for an attendant telephone set that receives multiple incoming telephone calls, yet only requires the operator or user to press a single call appearance button to automatically redial and recover an incoming call, thereby eliminating the need to scroll through a list of caller identifications on a display.
For the purpose of this invention the term xe2x80x9cattendantxe2x80x9d is defined as an operator or user of an attendant telephone set.
The present invention is directed to a method for recovering calls using an attendant telephone set having a predetermined number of call appearance buttons. A plurality of incoming telephone calls from calling parties are received at the attendant telephone set, and the telephone number of each calling party is identified and stored in a memory device. Each incoming telephone call is assigned to a next available call appearance button of the predetermined number of call appearance buttons. In response to an attendant""s selection of one of the call appearance buttons, the stored telephone number of the calling party of the incoming call assigned to the selected call appearance button is automatically redialed.
In addition, the invention relates to a call recovery system for performing the method described above. The call recovery system includes an attendant telephone set that receives multiple incoming telephone calls. A processor identifies a telephone number of the calling party of each incoming telephone call and assigns each incoming telephone call to a next available call appearance button of the predetermined number of call appearance buttons. A memory device stores the identified telephone number of the calling party of each incoming telephone call. In response to an attendant""s selection of one of the call appearance buttons, the processor automatically redials the stored telephone number of the calling party assigned to the selected call appearance button.